Need to interview a nurse for school, anyone want to help?

mced · Nov 11, 2006

I have a project due where I need to interview a school nurse, an emergency room nurse, a health clinic nurse, or an occupational health nurse. All I need to know is what is a healthcare delivery problem that affects youe ability to adequately deliver care to the patients you serve and what has your place of work done to improve the problem? One example given was the overuse of the emergency room. Thanks ahead for the help!

How about the patient's failure to take responsibility for their own actions. That is our facility's major problem and unfortunately there is not too much that can be done about that.

julie0125 · Nov 11, 2006

I used to work in a neurology clinic. I agree that there was little patient responsibility. We were booked out for months in advance for patients. Either patients would so up late and demand that we fit them in somehow or they wouldn't even bother to show. It was really frustrating.

We had a lot of problems with having adequate amount of providers in specializied areas. Lots of demand created lots of overbooking and pressure from up top to see more people. Our providers were always running behind and receiving poor feedback.

Our budget was bare-bones. Because we were not a procedure based clinic, we had very little staff, very little for inventory and very little space to work with. Neurosurgery, however, was more procedure based and got everything they wanted - more staff, better hours, more room. We were barely able to get the basics done. Meanwhile, we were constantly having turnover because it was so hard to get anything done and it created lots of conflict.

So, in essence, we could barely even focus on the patient which is really sad.

Good luck!

TazziRN, RN · Nov 12, 2006

Ooooohhhh, I gots a great example!!! The hospital I work for owns two clinics, one next door and one in the neighboring town. We were inundated this morning with clinic-type pts and we finally started asking "Why didn't you go to the clinic?"

Answer: "They said they were too busy and to come here." I called our house supe, who called the clinic, and she was told the PA working at the clinic told the desk staff to send people here because they were overwhelmed.

Answer: "YOU CAN'T DO THAT!!!!!" We have enough of a problem with people using the ER for non-urgent problems, but for the clinics to SEND them here just because they're busy.......we have 6 beds in our ER. For most of the morning we had mostly clinic pts in here and had to scramble beds and pts around when we started getting urgent pts. We don't have a hallway, so pts are either in a bed or in the waiting room.

misspeetle · Nov 12, 2006

Thanks, has anyone try to do something about the problem?

misspeetle · Nov 12, 2006

Why were the MDs even seeing the patients when they were late? I work in family medicine and we have a strict rule-if your 15 min. late or more, you're not seen! Also, as far as overbooking, we have an open access scheduling that really helps! Patients call in the morning they want the appointment and are seen the same day, this also helps with cancellations and late appointments. The only things we book out for are paps, shots, nurses appointments, and the elderly. Has your place of work tried to change any of the problems?